o give thanks for 8 months

what a big month month 8 has been! we celebrated cupcate's first thanksgiving. and we have so much to be thankful for. as usual, i didn't take enough pictures, but it was a lovely day. cate had both sets of grandparents in one spot, along with great grands, uncles and aunts. in short, she had an inexhaustible supply of holders and playmates. i think her expression in this picture from that day pretty much sums it up...

she has one tooth (bottom center right) that has broken through to the other side and one next door neighbor hanging out just below the surface. she's done really well, but i am told the molars are the real deal holyfield pain. something to look forward to, i guess.

her hair has filled out enough to do bathtub fauxhawks, which is fun for everyone.

j and i took our first weekend trip to marathon. cate stayed with classy and pop the first night. she stayed in sundown with aunt stacey and uncle cam on night two. cate was spoiled rotten, but she may have taken a toll on uncle cam. we could hear him yell, "FREEDOM!" when he stepped inside the house after helping us load the car. hee hee!

and on the day after her 8 month birthday, she met SANTA at where else but SANTALAND!
it was a balmy 70 degrees at sunset.

not very conducive for the christmas spirit, but the weather was great for standing in a very long line with a very small child. jared felt like he'd been sucked into "a christmas story." good thing cate didn't want to ask for anything with which she can shoot her eye out.good thing we had classy and pop to help keep our spirits up!

so we were fully expecting for a "santa is so very scary and i will scream as loudly as i can" reaction, but cate l-o-v-e-d santa and the mrs.

and no, i haven't been dressing cate in the same outfit every day since thanksgiving. but i was tempted. boy, are these candy stripes cute! thanks, aunt stacey!

we're counting sleeps (six more) until we leave on a jet plane for rochester, ny to christmas with the minemiers and mccauleys. and praying for a good flying baby or really patient neighbors. or maybe we should pray for a neighbor with a huge, white beard. that could keep us occupied for hours.merry christmas to all, and to all a good flight!

seven months

what a sweet weekend we had! the cupcate turned seven months old on saturday. she celebrated in her red raider cheerleader uniform. sadly, cate's cheers were not enough to spur the raiders to victory.

on sunday, jared and i, along with the grands, great-grands, aunts, uncles, cousins, and dear friends the coxes and dicksons, dedicated the sweet little one with these words: "we want to acknowledge that cate is God's child. He has given us the privilege of telling her about His goodness and overwhelming love for her from the first days of her life. We commit our home as a place where she will be pointed to His purpose for her life and ours: to be in relationship with Him." thank you, thank you, thank you for this privilege!this pic is from a mini-reunion we had a couple of weeks ago with my lifelong friends emily, geetha, and amy (missed you sang, lyd, sunipa and anya!) with our contributions to the second generation. aren't they all beautiful? and cate's face kills me. "mom, look! the big kids are letting me hang with them. can you believe it?"

six months

i feel like one bad mutha. more like a terrible mother. it has been forever, ever, ever since i have posted about the sweet and tiny human who fills our days (and sometimes our nights) with joy. and let me tell you, there is something staggeringly adorable and completely post-worthy happening every single day. for posterity's sake, i'll go on the record and say i've been struggling mightily with a little thing the self-help community refers to as balance. the whole "there is a time for every purpose under heaven" thing hasn't been working out so well for me. my times and purposes have been mixing it up like nobody's business. or maybe now is the time for my purpose to be about clinging onto the Big Guy and His promises as tightly as i can. all that to say, blogging has been shoved into a corner. but nobody should put this sweet baby in the corner. since last we met, a few major milestones have occurred. classy, cate and i went on our first girls trip to meet the lovely annabelle smiley in georgetown. baby girls were mad cute. and i believe they are destined to be bff's. their initials are "ab" and "c." no pressure girls, but you better love each other!cate started eating solid food with some regularity. we started slow, but really picked up steam with sweet potatoes. they are like cate crack. rog and di gave us a baby food cookbook, so for now, she's the only one in our house getting home-cooked meals with any regularity. we celebrated the cupcate's half birthday.

cate was a very unhappy little lamb for her first halloween. her costume lasted for approximately three minutes. but she was so very darling.things she loves these days:

• her barnyard jumperoo. dad and i have the songs memorized and i find myself singing about the three little pigs who twirl around periodically throughout the day.
• books. especially karen katz lift the flap books. i think we read "where is baby's belly button" 10 times today. thanks jen white kawley and aunt diane!
• laughing. nothing is sweeter than making her belly laugh. her favorite sounds this week have been "grandpa" (roger is using all of his lobbying skills to make this her first word), "brussel sprouts" and my scary halloween witch's laugh.
• sitting or standing up. she's lost all fondness for laying on her back or being cradled in a reclining position. she's an upright girl.

and we're so very glad we get to hang out with her everyday.

five months

who is a very sweet five month old?
the cupcate is! and she wants to give a birthday shout out to her uncles cam and dee who are 408 months old today. love you, uncles!

cereaously grown up

We're not sure how much of it was actually swallowed, but we put cereal in the cupcate's little mouth for the first time yesterday.

There was some confusion and slight concern on her face.

The first spoonful was almost rejected-or ejected-completely.

I think she decided that the cereal thing wasn't all bad. If nothing else, we get to add a new accessory to the mix. Bibs with bunny faces and ears are cute!

miss october

'tis the season for all of dad's favorite sports.
dad already has his foot in the door with the yanks. but we still have hope she'll root for the cowboys.

four mounths

today we went to dr. g's for the big, bad 4 month shots. i can't imagine poking tiny, fat legs with needles is the highlight of anyone's day, but cate and i did not care for the experience at all. but thank the good, sweet Lord, our little lamb is still packing on the pounds. yay!

weight: 14 lbs 12 ounces (75th percentile)
length: 25 inches (80th percentile)
head circumference: 16.4 inches (75th percentile)

since our last post, we've taken another trip to ruidoso with classy, pop, aunt stacey and uncle cam. we spent a lot of time on the back porch. the mornings were pretty cool, so cate needed a hoodie. and, of course, classy provided.

she also took a lovely bath in the huge cabin sink.

that little belly just kills me.
and daddy just kills her.

we celebrated margie's 80th birthday. what beautiful girls!
the past few weeks have been so much fun. i started my new 60% schedule at work on august 10th. i am so completely blessed to have the best of both worlds. on the 2.5 days i work, cate visits classyworld, which is a truly magical place where our little one is completely adored. knowing she is with mom makes it a little easier to drive away on those days. and my time at work flies since i am trying to pack a 5 day week into 2.5.

i also started boot the same week my new schedule kicked in. MWF i leave the house at 5 am to work out with 10 or so other women in a church parking lot. i am so very out of shape, but it feels really good to have the work out checked off of my list before the day ever begins. as he is with most everything in our lives, jared has been 1000% supportive. of course cate starts waking up the minute i walk out the door on those mornings. she senses the disturbance in the force. a very sleepy jared cheerfully corrals her until i get home.

speaking of sleepy, i had a total new mommy/space cadet moment the other day. as i was walking toward my car in the united parking lot, i noticed a massive scrape covered in burnt orange paint on my front passenger side bumper. i was thinking, "how in the &%$# did i hit a burnt orange car and not notice. jared is going to kill me!" i bent over and started rubbing the scrape to see if the orange paint would come off. i feel someone standing behind me and i turn to see a man looking at me, obviously puzzled by my actions. that's when i realize that this is not my car. what's even worse, it is not even the same make and model as my car. i think i said something along the lines of, "i'm a new mom and i'm not getting enough sleep," as i sprinted to the next white suv in the lot, which, thankfully, was my car.

cate spends a lot of her time smiling, except, of course, when mom is trying to take a picture. then she's all about the business of being serious.
if you hadn't picked up on it in the pictures, she spends a lot of time with her tongue outside of her mouth. i think it is another way for her to experience her surroundings. an "i must taste the air around me" kind of thing. that, or her tongue is way too big for her mouth to hold. only time will tell, i guess.
she's discovered her feet and is fascinated. and she talks really loudly sometimes. we wonder what it is she thinks she is saying. whatever it is, it is muy importante. we think her eyes may be changing colors. she is amazing.